“May 31 and June 1, 2025. Everyone is invited.” Confirmation that there would be a second edition of the Portuguese version of the Coala Festival will come on Sunday through Gilberto Gil. Before saying goodbye to the box All Menina Baianaone of two successes from 1979, the 81-year-old musician, former Minister of Culture of Brazil, gave the invitation to the plateia of the Manuel Possolo Hippodrome, in Cascais, many of the Brazilians.
That same afternoon, the singer and composer Rubel, nominated in 2018 for a Latin Grammy with his album Houses, he improvised a statistic during his concert, when he asked there were Brazilians in attendance. “It’s 53%,” she concluded, after the effusive response from the public.
It was not by chance that the Coala Festival, with ten years of history in Brazil, chose Portugal for its first internationalization. “The size of the Brazilian community” was a significant factor, says Observer Gabriel Andrade, founder of Coala. One of the festival’s partners, Fernanda Pereira, moved to Portugal and “started to move so that it is possible,” continues Gabriel. Also Brazilian Pedro Neto, promoter Mundo Propício, organizer of concerts and events such as the VillaMix Lisboa festival, in the Meo Arena, of country music, Fez, finally, with the Coala happening for the first time this year in Cascais, as support of the municipal chamber.
Before the festival, Gabriel Andrade has never organized an event. “Nem uma festa de aniversário”, he jumps. At the time of the first edition in Brazil, in 2014, he is barely 22 years old and still has not finished college. The “initial effort” to start the festival was the enclosure of Studio SP, a show house in São Paulo that he frequented, where they usually played “emerging artists and bands,” he says. For example, “Emicida, Crioulo, Céu, Tulipa Ruiz, Curumim ou Russo Passapusso”, he lists. “Bands that are super relevant in Brazil and that people discover about them.”
When home came, there was a “huge void” in the culture of the city, confessed. “We thought we could do something to keep that dinner alive and that was the motivation to create a festival focused on new Brazilian music. From then on, people began to mature or conceit.”
The first edition in São Paulo happens in the same place where the next festival takes place, not Memorial da América Latina, first to occupy a smaller space and then the entire complex. O cartaz was “super indie for the time”, says Gabriel, with bands like Tom Zé, Crioulo, O Terno, Trupe Chá de Boldo, Cinco a Seco e Charlie e os Marretas no cartaz.
Little by little, the festival was won by some of Brazil and also major artists. In 2017, we will get it first sold out” with confirmation from Caetano Veloso. “I thought when I knew that people I tied up were tied up,” continues Gabriel. “We say that Coala represents the transition from what was 20th century music to what is going to be 21st century Brazilian music. People intend to revere the great architects of Brazilian music, but also to open paths for a new generation “It is to encourage new bands.”
Since then, great names of Brazilian music have passed through the festival, such as Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben Jor, the heads of the Portuguese edition’s letters, but also Elza Soares, Milton Nascimento or Gal Costa, who ali deu o suradeiro concerto em São Paulo , in September 2022.
The Coala brand is beginning to assert itself more and more and is also a record publisher, Coala Records, responsible for not marketing artists such as Bala Desejo, Tim Bernardes or Zé Ibarra. “We have this job of investing in new artists, a more extensive work within the music ecosystem and not only [de organizar] “an event that works with artists to sell income.”
Internationalization was the result of the brand, with Portugal as “the most obvious gateway”, continues the founder. Here, the concept of the festival was elongated. In addition to Brazilian music, the objective was also to trace Portuguese music and two PALOPs, with the help of Angolan Kalaf Epalanga, founder of the Buraka Som Sistema, in the curator. “As it was the first time, we need to check with a line-up mega relevant,” says Gabriel.
On Saturday night, and after an event by Pongo, also made by his collaboration with Buraka Som Sistema em Wegue Wegueand two BaianaSystem, from Salvador da Bahia, featuring the Angolan singer Titica on stage for the single Capim Guineor “mega relevant” line-up achieved, especially, with Jorge Ben Jor.
Two years ago, the 85-year-old singer had already been in the same box at the Manuel Possolo Hippodrome, in Cascais, not EDP Cool Jazz. Now, with a concerto of quase two hours that passed by his main successes (Fio Maravilha, More than anything ou Jorge da Cappadocia), once again proved that Portugal is also a Tropical Countrywith a good atmosphere and people to dance barefoot in the relva.
Gabriel Andrade, founder of Coala, considers a “unique opportunity” for Jorge Ben Jor and Gilberto Gil, head of the Sunday card, at the same festival, to be worth two tickets, which will cost us €80 for both days. “I consider the price quite affordable, Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben Jor have shows that are going to be increasingly rarer. “These artists in Brazil are decreasing in the number of shows they do and as turns in Europe decrease, they are staying.”
On Sunday, Mayra Andrade opened the main box, followed by two Brazilians Céu e Rubel. Later, it was time for the Portuguese Carminho to show his gratitude to her and confess in the box that “it has very sexist lyrics”, as she does not identify herself.
The festival ended with a audience to declare their love for Gilberto Gil – Gil, I love you –, as a singer to show reciprocity, a similar concert that took place last year at the Coliseu dos Recreios to celebrate 50 years of career.
The founder of Coala expected between “7 to 8 thousand people per day”, as expectations were exceeded, with almost 10 thousand people per day passing through the festival on the weekend. By next year it is expected that the Portugal-Brazil synergy will continue. For the letter from the Brazilian edition of Coala, which will take place in September, it is practically dated, but Gabriel does not rule out Portuguese participation, especially from DJs who will play in the secondary stage. “There is so much interesting stuff in electronic music here that Brazil as people are still not connected.”
Source: Observadora
